Rise Of The Governor (An homage)
by RIPprincess
Summary: Being a huge fan of both the show and comics, The Walking Dead is something I thoroughly enjoy. I believe the Governor, even in his limited time within the comics is one of the most intriguing characters out there. This is my own homage to Rise Of The Governor which if you haven't read, you really should!
1. Brian

After that last attack, I stood surveying the damage. The bodies of those damned biters were everywhere.  
"Goddamnit Phillip. Where are you?" I mutter in a hushed voice just in case there more of them lurking.  
I heard a rustle coming from behind a tree at the wood line and I steady my bas  
eball bat as I creep toward the noise.  
Now, let me explain something. Phillip was the strong one, the leader. He always was. Even before all this shit. As kids, he was the one organizing the baseball games. The one who beat the shit out of the kids who picked on me. So, when Philip staggered from behind that tree with a vacant look in his eyes, I froze. Was he…? I shook my head, blinking hard trying to convince myself of what I was seeing. This had to be some kind of sick joke he was playing on me.  
"Okay Phil, joke's over, its not funny…"  
That's when I saw it. The blood running down his arm, hitting the ground in sickening drips. He had been bit. He WAS one of them and this WASN'T s joke.  
Philip and I had made a pact, the same pact I'm sure many others made: If one of us became one of those God forsaken creatures, the other would do whatever necessary to end it.  
So, there I stood, staring down my rock, baseball bat in hand, choking up hard on the neck until my knuckles turned white.  
"C'mon man… just do it. Philip could do it. Philip wouldn't think twice. Philip would've done it already" my voice was progressively getting louder. "C'mon ya pussy! Just…"  
With that, I felt something change, a boiling rage set in as I took a running start, narrowing in on his skull as I took a swing.  
Then it went black.  
The next thing I remember, I'm sitting on the ground, covered in a putrid red substance that could only be the rotting blood of a biter.  
I held true to the pact, I took Brian out of his misery.  
I gathered Penny from the tree I had hid her in as the biters first began to move in. I promised myself then and there that I would find a place and bring back a normal way of life for my Penny.  
Brian was gone. Damn shame too, he was a good kid. He just wasn't strong enough.


	2. Finding Woodbury

"What happened to my daddy" Penny looks up at me with glassed over eyes.  
I wipe Brian's blood from my face with the inside of the neck if my t-shirt and kneel down to her level with a soft but confused look on my face.  
"What do you mean, honey, I'm right here…"  
Her eyes narrow at my words and her tiny fragile brow furrows.  
"You're uncle Brian… where's my daddy?"  
"Oh, Penny…" I take her small face into my hands. "Uncle Brian was bit, I had to do what was right." I watch as her tear filled eyes shift back and forth between mine. "You must be so scared. Sometimes fear makes your mind play tricks on you" I take her in my arms, holding her tight for a moment before putting her at arms length and speaking softly but stern in manner.  
"Its not safe here anymore. We have to go. I need you to stay close and quiet. I promise I will find you someplace safe."  
She gives a small nod, confusion still littering her face and she grabs ahold of my hand as I stand back up.  
The field looks clear enough for the moment so we start making our way across.

Days later, Penny has finally stopped questioning me, but I can see the fatigue, the blazing Georgia summer and the lack of proper nutrition starting to wear on her small frame. I have to find someplace safe to let her rest while I find supplies. In her weakened state, she would just prove a hindrance to what I need to accomplish.  
With Penny hoisted on my back I trudge forward, pushing through my own fatigue and dehydration. When I finally see it, I actually laughed, thinking my mind was playing tricks on me. A small neighborhood with an iron gate and a sign etched professionally on the iron plate.  
"WOODBURY" The sign read and I as well read aloud.  
I scan the inside area, no movement. The gate howls as I crack it open and creep inside, setting Penny down, motioning to her silently with a single finger over my lips.  
Silently, I creep through the neighborhood, Penny following closely. I stop and crouch down to eye level with Penny, pointing at a structure in one of the backyards. It looks like some kind of tree house and my suspicions are proven true as we get closer. I hoist her into the tree house, telling her in a whisper to stay put until I get back.  
As I enter the house attached to the yard with the tree house, the stench of death turning my empty stomach and stinging my eyes. I ready my bat, knowing one of those creatures had to be lurking somewhere dormant within those walls.  
Despite the stench, the house is surprisingly in tact. The windows fully functioning and the doors as well. Why this place reaked of death is completely beyond my comprehension. Room by room I sweep the house finding nothing but a perfectly tidy house. When I open one of the back bedroom doors, the smell engulfs me. I turn my head, heaving, but have nothing to throw up. Taking my shirt by the neck, I cover my mouth and nose and walk toward a motionless lump under the blanket. I can see the blood staining the pillow that is poking out of the top and a tuft of black hair extending out passed the bloodstain, and onto what was left of the white pillowcase.  
My heart jumps into my throat as I pull back the blanket, revealing the sweet innocent face of a little girl, no older than seven. A bullet hole piercing her forehead. I don't know why, but suddenly, I find myself checking the childs body for bites.  
"Mother fucker!" I yell as I throw the unbitten body on the floor and proceed to storm out of the room, tapping my bat against my shoulder, determined to find who did this unspeakable act. Well, their body anyway.  
Into the master bedroom I storm, resisting the urge to smash the fish tank sitting across from the bed. My head jerks toward the bathroom at the sound of growling. Readying the bat again, I step to the door, pushing it open, making sure to stand back, just in case. The growling gets louder and more violent, but nothing is coming out of the room.  
Cautiously, I look around the door frame only to see the lively remains of a man, hanging from the rafters, jerking and clawing toward me. I rear my bat, taking the first of many rage filled swings at the body, all the while making my point to the unintelligible bucket of flesh that was snapping its jaws at me.  
"HOW COULD YOU? YOU LOUSY EXCUSE FOR A FATHER! AFTER EVERYRHING I'VE BEEN THROUGH TO KEEP PENNY ALIVE, YOU DON'T EVEN GIVE YOUR OWN DAUGHTER THAT CHANCE!"  
I don't even remember what else came out of my mouth, but soon I find myself raging through the house, into the garage where I find an axe. Tapping the handle of the axe as I head back to the bathroom, I knew I had to finish the job for him.  
"Alright, mother fucker" I say to the still twitching corpse as I nring the axe up to my shoulder taking one hard swing.  
His body hit the floor in a heap, his head falling shortly after, rolling to my feet. I lean down, picking up the mans head by his hair.  
"I hope you're proud of yourself" I laugh in his face as I exit the bathroom and dump the head into the fish tank as I exit into the kitchen, thinking out loud…  
"This will make a fine home"


	3. Winter Falls

The summer was a scorcher and most of my time was spent clearing the neighborhood. House by house I cleared by myself and dragged the bodies to a remote corner of the gated area to burn. At first I had just thrown them over the iron fence, but the smell and commotion had attracted more and there was actually a breach in the gate. One of the panels had been overrun and had fallen. I can't even begin to tell you the devastation I felt that day. The whole area became overrun again and I had to start over. This was around May, I think, and by the end of August, I had the place cleared out again and was running my small piece of solidarity with a scientific precision.

Penny was smiling again and had that pink glow to her cheeks as she had in the months before the disaster. Her eyes were no longer sunken into her face; she was a lively, happy child. Lonely to some extent, but that was to be expected. Perhaps I could find her some playmates, families looking for safety, which could join us here. Besides, these fences needed to be reinforced and I couldn't do that alone.

During those summer months, I made several trips into town, collecting everything and anything I thought might eventually come in handy. Alone, I had nearly cleared out a hardware store of all building supplies and had deemed one of the houses for storage. I gutted the place, leaving nothing but four walls and a support frame. This would make an excellent armory and storage center once the community I knew Woodbury could be was built up. There would be no weapons here. The only use for them would be for trips to the outside. People needed to understand that other people were not the enemy inside these walls.

September had come and gone, the leaves had changed, and things were cooling down. I had just made what I hoped was my last trip into town before the winter set in. Food was plentiful; I had secured enough fuel and had been able to find suitable clothing to help us survive.

The first snowfall of the season came early. I felt the sudden change within my own body and could see it was affecting Penny as well. The little cough and occasional sneeze gave way to a full blown illness in her frail system. Before I knew it, I was sitting by her door at night listening to her wheeze, feeling as if I could pull my hair out. I just wanted to know how to help her. I wanted to fix her. This wasn't my job, this was her mothers, and we lost her mother at the beginning of all this.

This night, I find myself panicking. I pace the house, every square inch, racking my brain for the answer. I, in a thoughtful stupor, make my way back to my bedroom and sit on the bed, slumped over, my hands holding up my head which seems to weigh more than normal tonight. With all the effort I can muster, I lift my head, eyeing my little trophy… the thing that reminds me of why I am here. The thing that showed me so much more than anyone could have ever told me… I narrow my eyes at the head of the man who lived here before, the coward who turned without even being bit. Some would say, that would remind me of the lack of hope in this situation, but to me, it says fight for as long and as hard as you can. I will NEVER be one of those things. I will NEVER let Penny be one of those things.

My head jerks toward the door as I hear her coughing. It breaks my heart, how painful it sounds and the whimpers that follow. I nod at that reminder in the fish tank and walk into her room.


End file.
